The Mirror Crack'd - Agatha Christie [49]
‘Sinister strangers from America,’ said Craddock with a faint smile.
‘You’ve said it.’
‘They’re our best suspects by far, I agree,’ said Craddock. ‘They turned up unexpectedly. Ardwyck Fenn was an old flame of Marina’s whom she had not seen for years. Lola Brewster was once married to Marina Gregg’s third husband, who got a divorce from her in order to marry Marina. It was not, I gather, a very amicable divorce.’
‘I’d put her down as Suspect Number One,’ said Cornish.
‘Would you, Frank? After a lapse of about fifteen years or so, and having remarried twice herself since then?’
Cornish said that you never knew with women. Dermot accepted that as a general dictum, but remarked that it seemed odd to him to say the least of it.
‘But you agree that it lies between them?’
‘Possibly. But I don’t like it very much. What about the hired help who were serving the drinks?’
‘Discounting the “frozen look” we’ve heard so much about? Well, we’ve checked up in a general way. Local catering firm from Market Basing had the job — for the fête, I mean. Actually in the house, there was the butler, Giuseppe, in charge; and two local girls from the studios canteen. I know both of them. Not over bright, but harmless.’
‘Pushing it back at me, are you? I’ll go and have a word with the reporter chap. He might have seen something helpful. Then to London. Ardwyck Fenn, Lola Brewster — and the photographer girl — what’s her name? — Margot Bence. She also might have seen something.’
Cornish nodded. ‘Lola Brewster is my best bet,’ he said. He looked curiously at Craddock. ‘You don’t seem as sold on her as I am.’
‘I’m thinking of the difficulties,’ said Dermot slowly.
‘Difficulties?’
‘Of putting poison into Marina’s glass without anybody seeing her.’
‘Well, that’s the same for everybody, isn’t it? It was a mad thing to do.’
‘Agreed it was a mad thing to do, but it would be a madder thing for someone like Lola Brewster than for anybody else.’
‘Why?’ asked Cornish.
‘Because she was a guest of importance. She’s a somebody, a big name. Everyone would be looking at her.’
‘True enough,’ Cornish admitted.
‘The locals would nudge each other and whisper and stare, and after Marina Gregg and Jason Rudd greeted her she’d have been passed on for the secretaries to look after. It wouldn’t be easy, Frank. However adroit you were, you couldn’t be sure someone wouldn’t see you. That’s the snag there, and it’s a big snag.’
‘As I say, isn’t that snag the same for everybody?’
‘No,’ said Craddock. ‘Oh no. Far from it. Take the butler now, Giuseppe. He’s busy with the drinks and glasses, with pouring things out, with handing them. He could put a pinch or a tablet or two of Calmo in a glass easily enough.’
‘Giuseppe?’ Frank Cornish reflected. ‘Do you think he did?’
‘No reason to believe so,’ said Craddock, ‘but we might find a reason. A nice solid bit of motive, that is to say. Yes, he could have done it. Or one of the catering staff could have done it — unfortunately they weren’t on the spot — a pity.’
‘Someone might have managed to get himself or herself deliberately planted in the firm for the purpose.’
‘You mean it might have been as premeditated as all that?’
‘We don’t know anything about it yet,’ said Craddock, vexedly. ‘We absolutely don’t know the first thing about it. Not until we can prise what we want to know out of Marina Gregg, or out of her husband. They must know or suspect — but they’re not telling. And we don’t know yet why they’re not telling. We’ve a long way to go.’
He paused and then resumed: ‘Discounting the “frozen look” which may have been pure coincidence, there are other people who could have done it fairly easily. The secretary woman,